Nessa Diab stands up for boyfriend Colin Kaepernick with sick image

Whatever you may think about free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s social and political activism, he’s always kept his crusade aimed at the world outside the NFL. Even the staunchest of Kaepernick detractors has to admit this.

Well, that all changed Wednesday when one of the people closest to Kaepernick posted a disgusting photo on Twitter that crossed a major line.

Nessa Diab, 36, is the social activist and radio DJ girlfriend of Kaepernick. Many attribute her with Kaepernick’s relatively recent interest in social activism.

The photo in question compares NFL players and owners with slaves and slave owners.

The top of the photo shows NFL legend Ray Lewis hugging his former employer, Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti. The men were embracing after their riveting 2012 AFC championship game victory over the New England Patriots. It was a moving moment made all the more incredible by the fact that both men knew that Lewis had just played his penultimate game. Super Bowl XLVII would, in fact, turn out to be Lewis’ final NFL game.

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The bottom photo shows one of the final scenes in Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 film “Django Unchained.” Leonardo DiCaprio’s villainous plantation owner, Calvin Candie, had finally met his demise at the hands of the titular Django. Samuel L. Jackson’s Stephen, a profoundly loyal house slave, is overcome with grief and embraces his owner.

Subtlety is clearly not Diab’s strong suit, and if there was any doubt about that, look no further than the fact that Diab aimed the tweet directly at Ray Lewis, who recently tried to offer Kaepernick some friendly career advice.

First and foremost, the idea that professional sports owners are somehow modern-day slave owners is both trite and dishonest. Comparing any professional athlete making hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to slaves with no rights is extremely offensive and wrong. It minimizes the actual horrors that slaves had to endure.

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Slaves weren’t allowed to vote. Just because Colin Kaepernick chose not to vote doesn’t make him a slave.

Second, this is the most high-profile attack on the NFL that someone close to Kaepernick has made.

Sure, other NFL players have come out in defense of Kaepernick. Richard Sherman, Michael Jenkins and Terrell Suggs are just a few of the noteworthy players who have voiced some form of support for the divisive free agent.

But this is one of the first times that someone within Kaepernick’s personal circle has spoken out against the NFL. It wouldn’t be a stretch at all to think that Diab’s post had Kaepernick’s tacit approval, or at the very least his consent.

Which is all to say that Kaepernick’s murky NFL future might have just gotten much clearer — just not in the way that Kaepernick supporters were probably hoping for. If Colin Kaepernick never plays another down in the NFL ever again, he has nobody to blame but himself and the people he surrounds himself with.

It’s one thing to exercise your fundamental American right to peaceably protest. You may not agree with what he has to say, but you cannot deny his right to say it.

It’s another thing entirely to attack a prospective employer with flagrantly despicable accusations — especially if those accusations are factually incorrect and intellectually dishonest.

Kaepernick supporters who claim he’s being blackballed from playing in the NFL because of his protests need to ask themselves a very important question: If he truly wanted to play in the NFL, why would he allow this disgusting attack on an NFL owner to go unaddressed?